The Restaurant Industry According to Hollywood #18
How many times have you had a guest pontificate about how you should run your operation? So often guests consider themselves qualified to understand all the nuances, challenges and paths that restaurant operators face. Then they presume to suggest your next move or the preferred strategy for success. This Seinfeld episode does a great job exposing how perilous guest advice is for operators.
Of course you want to listen because a good idea can come from any source. Additionally, you don’t want to offend a guest by dismissing their thinking, even if it’s uninformed, self-serving and completely without foundation. Jerry shows his amateur spirit when he encourages Babu to transform his restaurant into a thematic Pakistani experience. While the outcome was no different than his previous incarnation, he spent money to follow the advice and then was unable to justify the decision. At least this clip depicts how poorly things can go if you follow amateur advice in a professional setting.